A 50-cent online trivia game awards cash to help students pay off up to $50,000 of debt

Kevin Foster accepted his student-loan payment from Givling in June 2015.
Givling
College affordability has recently become the preeminent issue in higher education, as student-debt figures have hit staggering levels.

And while lawmakers and student advocates look for solutions to the problem of unsustainable debt, relief for some borrowers may come from an unlikely place: online games.

Givling is a pay-to-play online trivia game that helps students pay off their loans.

To date, Givling says it has paid out more than $460,000 in student-loan payments and player prize awards.

Players, who gravitate toward the game to win additional prize money, are randomly placed into teams of three and answer true-or-false questions to rack up points. After their one free daily game, they pay 50 cents a round, plus an additional 30-cent transaction fee, and compete to win hundreds — sometimes thousands — of dollars a day. As of the time this article was published, the daily award pot was $190.

If you have loans to pay, you don't have to play for a chance at the cash. People with student-loan debt can sign up for Givling to be placed in a line to have debts paid, up to $50,000. The players' fees, plus ad revenue, fund these payments.

Ten people are in the Givling line at any given time. You can track the progress being made toward funding their loans in full. When the loan is fully funded, Givling shows up at their door with a ceremonial check for the full amount. (Givling actually pays the loan service provider directly.)

Four of the slots are chosen randomly, three are chosen chronologically based on the order users registered for Givling, and the last three are saved for borrowers who have purchased the most coins to play the game and contribute to the pot.

So far, the game says it has paid two students' loans in full: Kevin Foster's $32,000 student loan and Tobin Hale's $62,000 loan. Since Hale's loan was paid, Givling changed its maximum loan award payment to $50,000. It also has opened the door for individuals to enter the line to have their mortgages funded up to $25,000.

Launched in March 2015, Givling released an app for Apple and Android in December of last year, and it now says it's seeing its user base rapidly growing.